Standing On The Outside
by xXBalorBabeXx
Summary: The barrier is opened fully... and it all started after her match. (Set in Autumn/Winter 2017)
1. Chapter 1

"Hey. Hell of a victory out there, kiddo." TJ Perkins says after he and Amanda high fived each other, Amanda readjusting her white ring shorts with black angel wings on them.

"You really shouldn't yank on my shorts like that, TJ. And how am I supposed to explain this to Finn?" Amanda says, adjusting her Cruiserweight Championship onto her right shoulder and exposing the red handprint on her left hip from where TJ smacked her.

"We've been friends for years, he'll understand." TJ says, Amanda smiling slightly… before getting off of the crate and readjusting her black and white crisscrossed style ring top.

"Some days, I don't know how Sasha puts up with your crazy humor." Amanda says, both hearing small footsteps nearby and heading towards them.

They knew it was a child but not one of the ones that they normally saw, not one of their fellow co-workers kids. Amanda immediately scooped the small girl up, who she guessed to be anywhere between 5 and 8 years old.

"I can't find my mommy!" The young girl says, terrified as she wrapped her small arms around Amanda's neck and buried her tear stained face into the small bluish black haired diva's right shoulder.

"It's okay sweetie, we'll find her." Amanda says softly, cradling the small child close to her and lightly stroking her light brown hair as she and TJ continued walking around, looking for the child's mother.

Amanda felt the young girl's fear, having gotten separated from her parents at times… and it had taken some time but the small girl's head snapped up when she heard "Emmalina!" being called out and a woman just a few years older than Amanda ran over.

"Mommy!" Emmalina says happily, jumping into her mother's arms and the two hugging tightly.

"You had me scared to death, baby girl." The woman says before looking at Amanda and TJ. "Thank you so much for finding her." She says.

"It's okay, we're just glad we found you in time." Amanda says, lightly rubbing Emmalina's back. "Be careful next time, okay kiddo?" She asks.

"I will. Mommy, look at her eyes, they look like mine." Emmalina says, the orange gold eyeshadow Amanda was wearing bringing out the amber tones in Amanda's hazel eyes.

"Yes they do, kiddo. Most of the earth's population have brown or hazel eyes." The woman says, turning to Amanda. "Once again, thank you so much. We usually watch these events at home but I wanted her to see it live tonight." She says, her and Amanda hugging before the woman and her daughter left and Amanda took a deep breath and turned back to TJ.

"That was terrifying when we couldn't find her mom right away… no one can really keep an eye on a child 24/7 and it's scary when they run off." Amanda says, TJ knowing that she had watched after several of her surrogate nieces and nephews when their parents would bring them to events and how often the kids would take off running.

"That little girl almost looked like you though." TJ says, having seen pictures of Amanda as a child.

"Almost, it's like… I was looking at my younger self." Amanda says, TJ seeing a bit of sadness in her eyes and knowing that remembering her younger years made it drag up painful memories at times and pulled her into his arms, the two hugging.

It was a few minutes before they let go and Amanda headed towards her and Finn's locker room, opening the door and setting the title down on the bench… but Finn saw the look in her eyes and knew it wasn't anything to do with TJ getting a bit too rough and crazy in the ring tonight.

"Sorry that took so long. Found a kid running around the arena." Amanda says after the two wrapped their arms around each other and kissed, her flinching slightly when his right hand rested on her left hip.

"The kid okay?" Finn asks.

"Yeah, she's back with her mom." Amanda says, hissing slightly as Finn lightly pulled up part of her shorts and examined the red handprint left on her hip.

"I'm gonna kick TJ's ass for hitting you like that." Finn says, a bit angered.

"TJ just got a bit crazy tonight and if you hurt him, you know Sasha will be pissed at both of us." Amanda says after readjusting her shorts when Finn straightened up to his full height.

"He still hit you, it wasn't part of the script either." Finn says.

"I'm okay. If I wasn't, I would've rearranged his nose to where his-" Amanda says, Finn stopping her by putting his hand on her mouth as they heard more footsteps outside… before the door opened and Seth walked in, teeth marks on his arms.

"Nikoletta get cranky with you again?" Finn asks after dropping his hand, referring to Kurt's nearly one year old daughter.

"She never used to bite me and she doesn't bite Amanda when Amanda's watching her." Seth says, finding some antiseptic spray.

"I've told you, kids at that age can get a bit upset at times. You would babysit Joelle when she was a toddler and she wouldn't bite you." Amanda says, Seth spraying the antiseptic on his arms.

"Then how does she calm down when you're watching her?" Seth asks.

"Usually with a teething ring that's been in the freezer for hours and some old music… same way I would with Kyra when she was Nikoletta's age." Amanda says.

"You really are a patient soul, Mandy." Seth says, the two hugging and him noticing her grind her teeth together when the hem of his shirt brushed against her hip and then the handprint. "I'm gonna rip his head off!" He mutters as they let go.

"For the last time, TJ just gets a bit crazy." Amanda says.

"Yeah, so do I. As he seems to believe… the script doesn't have to be exactly kept to, does it?" Seth says.

"No but there has been a bit of tension here with the Bullet Club running roughshod every Monday night. They jumped him last week." Amanda says.

"Still part of the script." Seth says, Amanda rolling her eyes slightly. "Don't roll your eyes at me, kiddo." He says.

"Oh what are you gonna do, Rollins?" Amanda asks jokingly… before letting out a laugh as he tickled her. "Seth, stop it!" She says, trying to get away but when she ran towards Finn, he snaked his arm around her waist and started tickling her as well. "Finn! Cut it out!" She says between laughter as Karl and Luke ran into the locker room.

"Careful with your tiny girl, Finn!" Karl says as he and Luke laughed.

"Seth, you started this, didn't you?" Luke asks after he stopped laughing, Finn letting Amanda catch her breath.

"Maybe I did, maybe I didn't." Seth says.


	2. Chapter 2

It was just before sunrise when she noticed it… Amanda couldn't sleep again because the Tv and lights had turned on by themselves, it seemed.

"What's wrong, lass?" Finn asks sleepily, sitting up and wrapping his right arm around Amanda's shoulders as the storm raged on outside… it wasn't uncommon in Miami for storms to happen or Tv and electrical systems to flicker before a blackout, especially from late summer to early autumn, where the heat and humidity still lingered.

But the Tv and lights were on fully, clear as a bell.

"The... Tv and lights were off when we fell asleep… and they just…" Amanda says… before both heard a childlike giggle.

Only to realise that _Courage The Cowardly Dog_ was on and it was the episode where Muriel was turned into a toddler when Muriel said _"Hi, I'm Muriel. I'm only 3 ½ years old, who are you?"_.

"I was beginning to think we were being haunted… mind's all scrambled." Amanda says as they lie back down.

"That's the lack of sleep doing that…" Finn says as the two kiss.

The madness from the whole dropped Sister Abigail storyline still lingered along with Amanda seeing the occasional spirit… but something about that girl she and TJ found seemed so real.

Too real… and it lingered on her mind.

Finn had an idea though… and lightly led Amanda outside as the storm started to lessen up a bit, both under the awning before they kissed.

Seth snapped out of his sleep and bolted upright, running to the door that adjoined both rooms and opening it… only to relax once he realised that Amanda wasn't under attack like he thought and was half naked in Finn's arms as the two kissed each other, their eyes closed and unaware of Seth nearby… until he slammed his hand on the door just to mess with them, making them jump.

"We have people staying next door, you two!" Seth says.

"You want to go crash with them, Rollins?" Amanda asks sarcastically.

Seth was about to reply when the sliding glass doors slammed shut, hard enough to send the glass flying and Seth shielding himself while Finn protected Amanda as well as the power being knocked out.

Amanda was shaken violently, Finn lightly rubbing his left hand up and down her right side.

"Is it over?" Amanda asks quietly.

"It's over… whoever it was that did that is gone." Finn whispered, kissing Amanda on her forehead.

Picking her up into his arms, Finn carefully stepped over the remaining glass in the frame and took Amanda into the room, Seth following them and Amanda pulling her black satin cami back on.

She seemed to relax… until the door was thrown open and she bolted up and kicked the shadowed figure right in its ribcage, knocking it down.

"Damn it… hint taken to wear body armour around you!" Dean says between coughing, Amanda's eyes snapping open as Seth helped Dean up.

"Sorry… storm made her jumpy." Seth says.

Amanda was about to tell them what had been going on as of late but not wanting to terrify her Shield brothers, she didn't.

The next morning in the lobby of the Embassy Suites, Kurt went to go check on his friends after hearing that not only did the sliding doors in Finn and Amanda's room were broken but also in Roman's, Sasha and TJ's and Enzo's… with Stephanie watching Nikoletta, he figured it wouldn't take long.

But he found them all huddled together at a giant table improvised of smaller ones in hushed conversation, Amanda shaking the most violently even as Finn's hand rubbed up and down her back.

"Something wasn't normal about that storm, Roman!" Amanda hissed angrily when Roman innocently suggested that she was suffering from PTSD after what happened at the Backlash pay per view that left her comatose.

"What's the problem here, kids?" Kurt asks after walking over to them.

"Mandy seems to think that last night's storm wasn't entirely normal." Roman says.

"How else would you explain several sliding doors breaking at the same time?!" Amanda asks.

"Storms here can get violent." Roman says.

"Roman, the last violent storm on record to destroy things like that in South Florida is hurricane Andrew. Mandy, tell me what exactly happened." Kurt says, sitting down.

"We were sound asleep, I heard the Tv going when I remember turning it off… I turned the lights off too but they were nearly blinding when we woke back up." Amanda says, Kurt looking at her.

"You're a bit young to remember but we were all staying at the Biltmore back in early 2002 when…" Kurt says.

"Just before John got called up to the main roster… I remember part of that trip. What else happened?" Amanda says, Kurt starting to explain it…

 _Kurt opened his eyes when he heard nearly inaudible cries in the hallway, stood up and walked to the door. When he opened it, he was startled to find a badly shaken 11 year old Amanda curled up in a ball and crouched down to her._

" _Hey, what's wrong, kiddo?" Kurt asks._

" _There's something… in the room that woke me up and I couldn't find John... I don't want to go back in there." Amanda says, Kurt pulling the small girl into his arms and letting her bury her teary face into his left shoulder as she clung onto him._

 _Standing up with her in his arms, Kurt looked up and for a split second, he thought he saw a small toddler in a white dress that was soaked, the toddler's head bleeding… he took a few steps towards her but stopped when the young girl in his arms let out a sharp scream._

" _No! That's the ghost, that's Abi… she's angry at me!" Amanda cried, Kurt trying to comfort her… but then he saw the small hand shaped bruises on her neck and took her to his room and saw his tired wife waking up._

" _Kurt, Mandy, what's wrong?" Karen asks, standing up and walking to them, her left hand resting gently on Amanda's back._

" _I'll explain it tomorrow but something frightened her." Kurt says, Karen nodding…_

"Except later that morning, I ended up in the hospital with a broken leg after I… damn it, I never slipped down those stairs. Abi pushed me down them!" Amanda says, Kurt knowing she was remembering it all over again.

"There's a lot in this world that can't be explained." Kurt says.

"Most of my childhood memories are scrambled… but she was so angry, accusing me of stealing the life she didn't get to live." Amanda says, Kurt seeing what looked like an aged bite scar on Amanda's left shoulder. "You only see it if you look close enough…" She says, Finn seeing it too… and remembering.


	3. Chapter 3

_**11/1/15, Orlando…**_

" _Morning, sleepyhead." Finn says as Amanda, still in her pajamas, walked downstairs._

" _Yeah, it'll be a better one once this hangover wears off. No more tequila shots with Ziggler, that guy drinks like Homer." Amanda says, Finn chuckling as he turned around… and because Amanda's hair was in a ponytail, Finn noticed the scar on her left shoulder and walked over. "What's wrong?" She asks, seeing the concern in his eyes._

" _I hadn't noticed it before but you've got an old scar on your left shoulder. How'd it happen?" Finn says._

" _Yeah. I don't remember how, it happened when I was 11 and I'd slipped and fell down the stairs. Children fall a lot, I just never thought anything more of it other than scratching it open on a nail. Why you ask?" Amanda says as he closely examined it. "It… doesn't look like a scar from a nail, does it?" She asks._

" _I know a bite scar when I see one. Alden accidentally bit my arm when he was about a little under two years old." Finn says._

" _That's right around the time children are almost finished teething… and Shawn and Rebecca's son was about two back then, I would babysit him at times and he would get really cranky if I gave him a sippy cup instead of a bottle. He almost bit Shawn's finger off once but he was five and trying to get rid of a loose tooth." Amanda says._

" _Kids can be fussy at times." Finn says._

" _I think it would be worth it though… to one day become a parent." Amanda says… but Finn noticed a hint of sadness and self doubt in her eyes when she said that._

 _As he was about to comfort her by saying that she shouldn't doubt herself, the temperature dropped in the apartment._

" _Sami, stop fucking around!" Finn and Amanda said simultaneously… which confused a barely awake Sami Zayn as he sat up… or tried to, a still asleep Bayley hugging him even tighter._

" _Hmm… what? What's wrong?" Bayley asks as her eyes opened halfway._

" _Sorry." Amanda and Finn say, feeling bad for waking their friends._

" _We all have those kind of mornings… it's alright." Sami says before all four heard lightning and thunder._

 _The power went out seconds later, Bayley clinging on tighter to Sami and Amanda gripping Finn's right hand out of fright as darkened buildings tended to unnerve her, Finn lightly pulling her to him by wrapping his left arm around her._

" _Shh… it's okay, lass, it's just a lot of noise." Finn whispered once they were properly holding each other, him stroking Amanda's hair with his left hand and lightly rubbing his right hand up and down her back as she buried her face into his neck._

 _Finn knew that no one shook this violently from just a storm alone._

 _He had a feeling that something truly traumatized Amanda when she was a small child._

 **Present time…**

"That party didn't stop you two from-" TJ starts to say, screaming when Sasha slammed her right foot into his left leg.

"Didn't stop them from what?" Kurt asks, Amanda laughing nervously.

"That was shortly before the tour in Europe… Finn and I got really damn drunk one night in Ireland, I dared him to do body shots off of me and he did." Amanda says, anticipating that Kurt would yell… but he laughed instead.

"You two are just perfect nutcases!" Kurt says.

"Oh, it was fun for them… until I saw it and went a little crazy." Seth says.

"A little crazy? You tried to strangle him." Amanda says.

"Seth, is that true?" Kurt asks.

"Yeah… I saw them like that and everything went hazy." Seth says.

Amanda let out a sharp yell of pain as without warning, the chair Kurt was using slammed into her left leg.

"Ow! Damn it!" Amanda yelled, rubbing her leg as Finn and the others tried to calm her down.

"Damn, I'm sorry. You okay?" Kurt says, Amanda nodding even though Kurt knew she wasn't okay because of how fast her ankle was bruising.

"How bad does it look?" Amanda asks, Kurt hearing a childlike giggle.

Kurt headed back to the room as the others helped Amanda outside, Nikoletta smiling when she saw him.

"Dada!" Nikoletta says, Kurt picking her up out of her playpen and hugging her… but Stephanie saw the look in her friend's face.

"What happened, where's Mandy?" Stephanie asked quietly.

"Auntie okay, Dada?" Nikoletta asks.

"She'll be okay, precious." Kurt says, kissing Nikoletta on her forehead.

 **Jackson Memorial E.R**

It was visible again, that tense look in Amanda's eyes… Finn reached over and lightly squeezed her right hand, knowing what she was thinking as Seth walked into the hallway and saw the little girl and the lady that TJ and Amanda found last night.

"I remember you, from last night's event!" Emmalina says excitedly, Seth seeing her wearing the wristband he had handed to her before his match.

"Oh right… hey, how'd you bruise your arm?" Seth says, seeing the bruise that the small child had on her left arm.

"I slipped and fell… is that nice lady here with you? Did she fall too?" Emmalina says, looking for Amanda.

"She's worried because she saw the hand print on your friend from last night's match… but it's not that, is it?" The woman says.

"It's her left leg, isn't it?" Emmalina asks… but what startled Seth was that the small child already seemed to know.

"Yeah, just an accident." Seth says, turning to the woman. "What's your name?" He asks.

"Mira. Follow me, I'll explain how Emmalina knows these things." Mira says, her, Emmalina and Seth heading to the nearby chairs.

The X-Rays came back on Amanda's left ankle… and the doctor had reasoned that given Amanda's high impact style of wrestling, her constantly jumping off the top rope that the blow to her leg had been the last straw and resulted in a stress fracture although it wasn't a severe one and she would be okay within a month to six weeks.

Amanda let the doctor believe it too as her left ankle was being put in a brace and with good reason.

Her chaotic style of wrestling was an explanation that wouldn't get her sent to a mental ward.


	4. Chapter 4

_**Summerslam 2016, just after the Balor/Rollins match…**_

" _What the hell was that out there?! Tossing me into the steel steps and then slamming Finn into the barricade so hard that his right arm was nearly torn off?!" Amanda yells, not caring that the Total Divas cameras caught up with her._

" _That was part of the script! I used too much force, I didn't intend on shoving you!" Seth says… but he knew that wasn't the real reason that the Demon Mistress was pissed._

" _Oh and I suppose you think it's fucking right to slam him into a barricade and dislocate his shoulder from its socket?!" Amanda screamed at Seth, who looked at her._

" _Okay?! No, I don't like what happened… but at least he'll know now to never touch what's not his, whether it's you or that championship!" Seth says, a bit of smugness in his voice._

 _And that was all it took for the tiny diva…_

 _Within seconds, Amanda's fists were slamming against Seth's body and he was screaming and trying to back away but she trapped his left leg so he couldn't and let loose all the repressed rage that had been building since Seth first started giving her hell for hanging around Finn._

" _Roman! Help me, help! She's gonna kill me! Colin, you're a big guy, get this crazy bitch off of me!" Seth yelled through the pain inflicted on him, Roman, Colin and Enzo managing to pull Amanda off of Seth and Colin throwing Amanda over his shoulder and taking her away from there._

 _In the trainer's room, Finn jumped back as Colin walked in and tossed Amanda onto one of the examination tables._

" _For god's sake, what did you toss her onto the table for?! Have you gone mad?!" Finn asks, standing up and walking over to Amanda and Colin._

" _No but she has, she let her repressed rage out and beat Seth to a bloody pulp!" Colin says._

" _Oh if you think that was bad, I'm gonna fucking choke him until his eyes pop out of his fucking skull!" Amanda yells, Finn managing to restrain her as Colin left… Amanda stopped thrashing around and turned her head away from Finn, him realising it when her screams were quieted to soft sniffles._

 _She was blaming herself for his injury… she felt horrible._

 _Finn lightly cupped his left hand under her jaw and turned her to face him, her beautiful eyes filled with tears and him brushing them away when they fell._

" _I'm sorry…" Amanda says quietly, Finn helping her sit up and looking closer, seeing a bruise forming behind her right ear… and figuring out why she seemed so scrambled during the part where Seth tossed her into the steps. "Is there any blood?" She asks._

" _Thankfully not… any ringing sounds or echoing?" Finn says._

" _Not that bad… but beating that crazy bastard to a pulp was a bad idea, I'm royally screwed." Amanda says, knowing that under the paint Finn was wearing that his shoulder was bruised badly. "It's more than a dislocation…" She says softly as they held each other._

 _The two looked at each other, their mouths an inch away from each other's… before they lean in and kissed, Dean's eyes widening in shock as he watched from the partly opened door._

" _Dean, why do you-" Seth starts to ask, walking to the room but Dean stopped him. "Damn it, I need some ice, Dean!" He says._

" _I… wouldn't go in there." Dean says, Seth looking at him in suspicion._

" _What don't you want me to see?!" Seth asks… before both heard something being knocked to the floor and Dean restrained Seth. "Let go of me!" He shouts._

" _You already hurt them once tonight, back the fuck off!" Dean says angrily, Seth storming off and Dean knocking on the door._

" _Is he gone and not just playin possum?" Amanda asks._

" _He's gone. Are you covered in paint?" Dean says._

" _Yes…" Amanda says, Dean hearing the two chuckle._

 **Present time…**

"Well the doors are fixed…" Seth says once the three were in the room, Amanda setting the crutches aside after Finn helped her stretch out on the bed and prop her injured leg up.

"This fucking bites." Amanda muttered, already hating the brace on her leg. "Who was that woman you were talking to earlier, Seth?" She asks.

"She was… you really wouldn't believe me, actually. She was the mom of that girl you found backstage." Seth says, remembering the almost impossible to believe explanation that Mira had told him.

"Is the kid okay?" Amanda asks.

"She had a bruised elbow and arm, said she slipped and fell on the sidewalk. She was okay though." Seth says.

"It happens a lot with small children, can't watch them 24/7." Amanda says, Seth seeing small aged scars on her knees from what he guessed were from childhood accidents as he remembered that Amanda said that she did like to climb trees as a child.

"Yeah…" Seth says, lightly tugging on one of Amanda's curls… but it didn't make her smile like it normally would and both knew that the reality of her leg injury was sinking in, Finn pulling her into his arms and the two hugging.

Letting the two be, Seth found Kurt as Stephanie and Hunter took Nikoletta out to eat… and Kurt saw the look on Seth's face.

"Her ankle's fractured, isn't it?" Kurt asks.

"E.R doc said it was a stress fracture… Kurt? What else do you know about this little ghost that's haunted Mandy?" Seth says.

"You remember that one incident at the Performance Centre where her left knee got tangled up in the ropes?" Kurt asks.

"That was damn terrifying." Seth says before the lights flickered for a few seconds. "The majority of the hotels here in Miami aren't actually haunted, right?" He asks… before both heard a loud scream echo from Bayley and Sami's room and ran to it, Bayley opening the door… and both seeing the destroyed Tv.

"Bayley, what happened?!" Kurt asks.

"A little set of hands… just ripped the Tv off the wall and tossed it!" Bayley says, shaking with fright and all three seeing Sami with a half broken shower head in his right hand.

"We heard the screaming, what happened?!" All four heard, seeing Finn and Amanda… and Amanda focusing on the corner of the room, everyone knowing who she saw there when they saw the tense and angered look in her eyes.

"Why can't you just leave us alone?!" Amanda growled as Abigail appeared in her toddler form, the soaked dress and blood on her head.

"Abi? Now let's be reasonable-" Seth starts to say, ducking when Abigail threw the lamp at him before she turned to Amanda, who had the cross of her necklace clutched in her right hand, Finn holding onto his own.

Freaking out, Seth ran down the hallway and dialed Mira's number.

"What's going on in there, Seth?!" Mira asks after finding him.

"There's an angry little child ghost destroying one of the rooms!" Seth says, startling Mira.

"Ghost?... Oh, Abi…" Mira says, Seth looking at her equally as startled that she knew who Abi was.

"She's on a rampage… this is far from the first time she's hurt… Mandy." Seth says, realising how quiet it was until the others headed to him, unharmed.

"She's gone for now…" Amanda says, sounding drained.

"Right… next time she turns up, you message me right away." Mira says, grabbing a pen from a nearby room service cart and writing down a number on a sticky note, the number confusing Amanda as it wasn't a 3 sectioned American, +44 English or in fact any location pattern she recognised.

Amanda nodded, her eyes closing for a few seconds and Finn resting his hand on her back.

"This is the part of my life that I wish I could lock away… Abi's never gonna leave." Amanda whispers before they kissed.


	5. Chapter 5

Hiding in the hotel room with everyone, Amanda picked up her tablet and sent a video call out to her brother… John smiled when he saw her but it dropped off his face when he saw how pale she was.

"I still say we should call in Vampiro from _Lucha Underground_." Sami says.

"You saw her again?!" John asks.

"She ended up trashing some rooms last night, hurting my leg this morning and then scaring the living hell out of Bayley and Sami." Amanda says before everyone saw Kurt open the door and letting a soaked and bruised Alexa in.

"What the hell happened to you?!" Seth asks.

"My umbrella got snatched out of my hands and then I got lifted up, choked and tossed across the parking lot!" Alexa screamed.

"That's South Florida weather for ya." Amanda says quietly, trying to sound convincing but Alexa didn't buy it.

Like the others, Alexa had been watching Amanda with a careful eye since the head trauma at the Backlash event… and Alexa noticed the way that Amanda was gripping onto the cross again, Alexa turning to Seth.

"Seth, what the hell is going on with her?!" Alexa growled.

"I think I can explain it…" Mira says, taking Alexa into the hallway.

"It's that damned dead child again, isn't it?! The one that Bray called Sister Abigail?!" Alexa asks quietly.

"She was his sister?" Mira asks.

"Yeah… twin. She was just 2 when she…" Alexa says, Mira realising that despite Bray's efforts, he couldn't save Abi.

"I noticed one thing… Mandy has a small scar on her head. A recent one." Mira says.

"Two back to back head injuries… the second one..." Alexa says, looking at Mira before starting to explain the aftermath of the second injury.

 _ **5/22/17, 5:45am…**_

 _Finn's eyes snapped open when he felt Amanda's hand squeeze his as Alexa walked in and saw Amanda's eyes opening and her reaching at the ventilator, Alexa quickly returning with the doctor._

 _Amanda coughed and gasped for air after the ventilator was removed, taking deep breaths and rubbing her head._

" _Where… is he, did Jinder… leave?" Amanda asks, the last part of her memory being Jinder's foot slamming into her head._

" _He's… somewhere. How are you feeling?" Finn says._

" _I feel… like I was hit by a train. Everything hurts… but I'm not letting death win anytime soon." Amanda says as they hug and kiss, Alexa finding the others._

" _Is she awake?!" Seth asks._

" _Yes… that was damn scary, seeing her nearly die. Our company needs to take head injuries more seriously." Alexa says as she brushed her tears away, Seth having not seen the small woman so shaken up._

 _But in all truth, he was just as terrified._

 _Seth walked into the room and Amanda looked up at him, the two immediately hugging._

" _Saying that I'm okay would be a massive lie…" Amanda says as they looked at each other with a few inches of distance but were still holding each other. "I'm sorry, I should've been careful." She whispers as he brushed her tears away._

 _At the same time, Alexa stopped and closed her eyes, letting herself cry… before a hand rested on her shoulder and she opened her eyes, seeing Nancy._

" _She has a lot of things she tries to keep hidden… but if you look close enough…" Nancy says._

" _I can see it… I see why she's a broken soul. That was so damn scary when she was just lying there in that ring, not moving…" Alexa says, brushing her tears away…_

 **Present time...**

"Everyone of us were so scared of losing her… we've already lost too many of our own before their time, Mandy was just a teenager when she was hit with four devastating losses… she never fully recovered from the first one when the next three happened." Alexa says, trying not to cry.

Mira checked in on Amanda, who was somewhere between asleep and awake as she and Finn watched _Courage The Cowardly Dog_ in an attempt to distract themselves.

"You know about the head injury, don't you?" Amanda asks quietly.

"How many did your friend suffer?" Mira asks.

"I lost count… Chris always tried to assure me that he wasn't damaging his brain but that voice that told me otherwise wouldn't go away." Amanda says, Mira resting a hand on her shoulder. "It was wrong what he did during his last days, more than wrong but I still miss him… I miss all three of them. My family." She says as she tried not to cry, Finn lightly rubbing his hand up and down her back.

Mira looked up and saw a teary eyed Kurt look away.

After everyone had calmed down, Kurt explained it to Mira when both went to check on Nikoletta.

"Out of all of us, it took the most out of Mandy… for so long, it seemed like she was gone but her body hadn't followed. We were worried that we'd lose her then." Kurt says quietly, holding Nikoletta in his arms and Nikoletta babbling at Mira.

"Aw, his job isn't all about hitting people kiddo." Mira says, lightly ruffling Nikoletta's short hair.

"Yeah… she does like being there at work with me though." Kurt says, kissing Nikoletta on her forehead.

 **Later that night…**

"Uh, why the NV camera again? Those things-" Amanda says as Finn set the camera up.

"Freak you out?" Finn asks.

"Actually… when trying to catch some video of us locked in the arena, I dropped one on my right foot when I was about 20." Amanda says, Finn cringing at that thought.

"That had to have hurt like hell… I've dropped heavy things onto my foot but never a production camera." Finn says, turning the camera on as Seth, Roman and Dean walked in and saw the camera.

"Didn't we talk about this?!" Seth asks, assuming the wrong thing and letting out a yelp when Amanda smacked him on his left shoulder.

"It's not set up for that, you twit! Learn to trust him, he's a damn good man!" Amanda says.

Seth grumbled to himself, Roman nudging him.

"Be nice." Roman growled through gritted teeth, Seth nodding.

Seth was still dealing with it… some days were easier than others.


End file.
